December 1 2024 was World AIDS Day, which was observed by the Biden White House with the display of the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt on the South Lawn — all 54 tons of it.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced efforts, in advance of World AIDS Day, to continue to fight HIV/AIDS “at home and abroad.” The press release for the effort noted that,

”We remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses—honoring their courage and contributions as essential to the progress made thus far. We also stand in solidarity with the more than 39 million people with HIV around the world. Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration renewed and strengthened the government’s bipartisan commitment to ending the HIV epidemic. Since then, significant progress has been made through a whole-of-society approach, unprecedented investments, and a steadfast commitment to leading with science, advancing equity, and addressing HIV stigma and discrimination.”

Some of the initiatives going forward at home and abroad include expanding prevention and access to treatment, addressing the social determinants of health that underpin health disparities and poorer outcomes for some people, advancing innovation and R&D for HIV/AIDS, and strengthening partnerships both domestically and globally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In particular, the continuing commitment to PEPFAR — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — was expanded in a five-year strategy with the explicit goal of ending global HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

“PEPFAR—the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history—has saved more than 25 million lives and enabled more than 7.8 million babies to be born HIV-free across 55 countries since its inception in 2003,”

the press release explained.

We can learn a lot from the success of PEPFAR to inspire us for continued commitments to public and personal health. PEPFAR was established by President George W. Bush, signed into law with bipartisan support in May of 2003.

“America would lead the way in addressing HIV/AIDS with PEPFAR, the largest commitment in the history of any nation for a single disease,” the oral history of PEPFAR notes on the George W. Bush Presidential Center website.

[An important sidebar to add to the story: Dr. Anthony Fauci was coined a (successful)  “PEPFAR Architect” as part of his leadership at NIAID].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points: For a lesson in how NOT to do public health, your required reading is Randy Shilts’ landmark book, And the Band Played On.

As Publishers Weekly wrote in its review of the book in October 1987,

“San Francisco Chronicle reporter Shilts successfully weaves comprehensive investigative reporting and commercial page-turner pacing, political intrigue and personal tragedy into a landmark work. Its importance cannot be overstated: few topics merit more attention from the general public, or, as Shilts’s account makes appallingly clear, have been as successfully and deliberately shielded from the public at such a high cost of human lives. What starts as a medical mystery and the moving chronicle of a relentless killer soon evolves into an expose of deception and ineptitude at the highest levels of government….His detailed examination of the health establishment, the government and the press reveals the emergence of a more treacherous menace in the initial failure of our guardian institutions to respond to the crisis, despite the heroic efforts of a handful of individuals in hard-hit New York and San Francisco and at the Centers for Disease Control. Shilts presents one alarming story after another.” 

Here in Health Populi, I’ve referred to this book many times over the 17 years since launching the blog. In this post from 2016, I wrote on World AIDS Day about my much-missed friend Tony who passed away in the first generation of patients who quickly succumbed to AIDS in 1997. In that piece, I opined that, “Who a President selects for cabinet posts like the Department of Health and Human Services makes a huge difference in the public’s health.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a déjà vu moment I’m feeling today: bittersweet is one word for the feeling, seeing that quilt yesterday and listening to Jeanne White-Ginder, Ryan White’s mother, one of the HIV/AIDS warriors on the ground as a parent activist since her son, Ryan, contracted the AIDS virus at the age of 13 through a blood transfusion in treatment for dealing with hemophilia.

Ryan died in April 1990, just months before the passage of the Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act in August that year.

See Ryan’s patch from the AIDS Memorial Quilt here on the upper right of this section of the magnificent testament.

Here is what Jeanne said yesterday at the event:

“In many ways, personal grief has fueled the AIDS movement since the beginning.  Both Republicans and Democrats and congresses have strongly supported Ryan’s bill.  And as a result, countless lives have been saved.”

On December 6 2024, Ryan would have turned 53 years of age.

The words of First Lady Jill Biden. spoken on World AIDS Day 2024 on the South Lawn of the White House, remind us of who we are, who we can be, at our best, alluding to the power of a quilt to “cover” us all…

May we all feel the power of this worldwide day of unity. And may we always cover each other in kindness, compassion, and beauty.